Much as I love big hair, sometimes it needs to be contained in an upwards direction. The Sixties saw some of the biggest, sleekest and most extravagant styles which took heavy inspiration from Victorian and Edwardian originals but with that new, more expressive modern sexuality.

It’s one of my biggest annoyances that women only really wear their hair in interesting up-dos for their wedding days. You should probably wear a hairstyle which is quintessentially ‘you’, not a style which you think you ought to wear. (My mum wore her hair down for her wedding, which would have been fairly unusual in the early Seventies, and I think she looks amazing for it. And very ‘her’, at the time.) If you are going to wear it up for your wedding, why not try wearing it up on an evening out? It doesn’t have to look WAG-sleek, think more along the Bardot-lines…

Of course many of these looks are so sleek and precisely pinned that you would definitely need assistance, but quite a few are not. And the best way to learn, is to practice. The most basic tips I could give would be to curl your hair first (straight hair is more slippery and curls give more volume and grip – and you need plenty of that!!!) and, until you’re more savvy, let the curls do most of the work for you. Keep it relatively messy until you’re used to how you like it pinned, placement on the head and where you need volume or loose hair. Then you can build up to more precise and extravagant works of art.

And keep looking at photos!!

Just try not to get a crick in your neck when you’ve done a good job. It’s for other people to admire…

And my own feeble and basic attempt from a long time ago. It was so solid I drunkenly accidentally fell asleep and awoke the next morning to find it entirely in tact.

Hehe. The only time I've attempted big hair was at my high school prom (a looong time ago now). Even with professional assistance it still wasn't as big as I wanted, and fell apart halfway through the night!

Here in the US–at least Florida–women don't even try to break out of the rigid conformity of the T-Shirt and Jeans uniform. There's also a trend of younger women wearing their hair messy and wet, as though they've been caught in the rain. On the rare occasion that a girl does wear a dress and do her hair, she's the envy of every woman in the room! So why don't they try? Oh, why???